“The mayor of London … said the US model, where visitors are more robustly asked to pay ‘suggested’ or ‘recommended’ entrance fees, might be better” than the UK’s free model. Johnson “said an American youngster had berated him in New York, asking why London had free museums and not – for example – free hamburgers.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Editorial: Tax Targeted To Arts Patrons Is Ill-Conceived
“It’s not clear whether charging an extra $1.28 would deter the average patron from visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art – probably not. But many arts organizations are teetering on the edge financially, after a sharp decline in private donations. For some, an increase in ticket prices could become the breaking point.”
Norman Foster’s Next Design Locale May Be The Moon
“After dominating the architecture scene for 40 years, Norman Foster seems to have decided that the world is not enough: his practice has joined a European consortium to look into how future structures could be built on the Moon….”
Pennsylvania Arts Leaders Vow To Fight New Sales Tax
“Just two days after waking to news that the proposed Pennsylvania budget agreement, announced late Friday in Harrisburg, would extend sales taxes to arts and cultural performances and venues – but not to movies or sports events – arts officials said they would blitz lawmakers in a last-ditch effort to stop the tax.”
Why The Algonquin Writers Were Famous In The First Place
“[T]he mere phrase, the Algonquin Roundtable, has been misappropriated over the years” and “sort of lost its meaning.”
Did Polaroid Own The Photos In Its Collection?
“[T]he Polaroid Collection has 16,000 prints by 120 recognized masters,” among them Ansel Adams, Phillipe Halsman, Mary Ellen Mark, Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Rauschenberg, Inge Morath, and Margaret Bourke-White. Sotheby’s is to auction 1,300 prints from the collection next spring — though some artists and former employees say Polaroid never owned them.
Retired Now, Harpist Ann Hobson Pilot Takes A Victory Lap
“‘No one thinks of Ann Hobson Pilot as an African-American harp player,’ says Mark Volpe, the BSO’s managing director. ‘They think of her as the great harp player of her time.’ The BSO is making that point by featuring Hobson Pilot in [an unprecedented series of] programs to celebrate her recent retirement.”
WGBH Seeks To Buy Boston Classical Music Station
“Boston public broadcaster WGBH made a bid yesterday to buy classical radio station WCRB, a move that could directly challenge rival Boston public radio station WBUR” by allowing WGBH to consolidate its classical programming on the new station and devote its flagship station to news and talk, like WBUR.
Met’s Opening-Night Crowd Greets Tosca With Boos
“The Met opened its season on Monday night with a new production of Puccini’s ‘Tosca’ by the adventurous Swiss-born director Luc Bondy. When Mr. Bondy and the production team appeared on stage during curtain calls, the audience erupted in boos. If there were cheers among the jeers, they were drowned out.”
And The Word ‘Genius’ Will Hereafter Be Applied To…
Author Edwidge Danticat, documentarian James Longley, short-story writer Deborah Eisenberg, mixed-media artist Mark Bradford, installation artist Camille Utterback and poet Heather McHugh are among this year’s crop of MacArthur fellows.